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The Hawk-Dove Model

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences
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Synonyms

Game theory; Prisoner’s dilemma

Introduction

The hawk-dove model is an evolutionary game theoretical model developed by John Maynard Smith (1982) depicting the fundamental conflict between prosocial (altruism and cooperation) and antisocial behavior (selfishness). The model describes the contest between two fundamentally different behavioral strategies, hawks (selfishness) and doves (prosociality), when competing over a shared resource. This contest reveals the evolutionary paradox of prosocial behavior (i.e., if natural selection is based on competition, then prosocial traits should not evolve). The hawk-dove model provides a simplistic framework to investigate the conditions that favor the evolution of prosocial behavior. Overall, hawks outcompete doves within groups, but a group of doves outcompete a group of hawks. For either hawks or doves to evolve, the balance of selection within and betweengroups must tip in their respective favor. Mechanisms that tilt this balance...

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References

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Correspondence to Omar Tonsi Eldakar .

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Eldakar, O.T. (2018). The Hawk-Dove Model. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1645-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1645-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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